Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowman
No. Even ERA is highly subject to variance (read "luck"), which league they pitched in, and whether or not they pitched in a pitchers park.
Just go pick your favorite pitching seasons by your 10 random favorite pitchers. Then scroll down to the advanced stats section and look at the corresponding BABIPs for those seasons. I guarantee you those BABIPs will all be super low. In other words, those were the seasons they got the luckiest, not necessarily the seasons where they had the best stuff.
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That is true, but it's more to helpful to look at this individual case. Using ERA+ eliminates the bias of park effects. Here's Johnson and Grove (100 is average):
Career #Led League
Randy Johnson 135 6
Lefty Grove 148 9
Because FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) only looks at strikeouts, walks, and home runs allowed, it eliminates the bias of BABIP.
Career #Led League
Randy Johnson 3.19 6
Lefty Grove 3.20 8
These two put Grove ahead.